We Welcome You to OEGlobal 2026! 🌎

[marcela]

Dear OEGlobal community,

Welcome! We are so happy to have you here as we get ready to come together for OEGlobal 2026.

Whether you’ll be joining us in Cambridge or participating online from somewhere around the world, you are an important part of this gathering. This conference has always been about much more than a program of sessions. It is about the people who come together to share ideas, ask questions, make connections, challenge one another, and imagine what openness can make possible.

This year’s invitation is Come Invent With Us! Innovating open practices to uphold and uplift knowledge as a public good. And we mean it. This is a conference we create together. We hope you’ll bring your experiences, your questions, your curiosity, and your ideas, and make this space your own.

Throughout the conference, we’ll explore what comes next for openness: how we strengthen our shared global vision, create deeper human connections, respond to emerging technologies, rethink the systems and practices that shape our work, and continue expanding access to knowledge as a public good. These ideas will take many forms across the program, but they are all connected by a belief in what we can learn, imagine, and create together.

And this Lobby is a place to begin. Introduce yourself, tell us where you’re joining from, reconnect with people you know, meet someone new, and start a conversation. We hope the exchanges that begin here will continue throughout the conference and well beyond it.

We are so excited to welcome this global community to OEGlobal 2026, and we look forward to learning, connecting, and inventing together with all of you.

To get us started: Where are you joining from, and what are you most looking forward to exploring at OEGlobal 2026?

See you very soon!

Marcela Morales and Igor Lesko
Co-Executive Directors
Open Education Global

---

OEGlobal 2026 Navigator

Program in Sched
OEGlobal 2026 Conference Web Site

Main Space in OEGConnect
Front Entrance public conversations “outside” the venue

For Attendees:
The Lobby meet attendees
Information Desk updates and help
Session Conversations discussion and sharing
Interaction Zone activities and things to do

[cogdog]

Hello, I am Alan Levine, Director of Community Engagement for OEGlobal and Chief Noisemaker here in OEG Connect. I will be an online participate in the conference this year from my home base outside of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

As I have a good chunk of responsibility of shaping the hybrid conference experience, it feels appropriate to operate from the online side and be a connector with everybody on site in Cambridge, our online participants, and our participants at the Satellite event in Vancouver,.

I am sad to not be in Cambridge to be there with so many colleagues but also that I have been fortunate to visit MIT a few times, the first way back in 2005 when I worked at the Maricopa Community Colleges as part of the Crosstalk Series (thanks MIT for keeping old web pages alive), and have enjoyed walking the campus, peeking in classrooms, labs, and taking photos of the amazing architecture.

The Daring of Stata flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

Ask me about the time I inadvertently wandered into a private event at the Media Lab and got kicked out

I am most excited to meet and greet and get to know everyone who makes their way into this space. And I am counting on everybody and sharing a lot of ideas and disccussions here plus a good bit of photo sharing.

[mark.wilson]

Hola desde El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula, California. Or, LA.

I’m looking forward to OEGlobal and will again be attending online. I facilitate open education with Karlstad University’s Open Networked Learning, StoryCenter.org & StoryHost.net. I hope to join other open enthusiasts and learn a thing or two.
Bryan Mathers drew this for my presentation at Reclaim Open 2025 Rewilding the Network – Making New Connections.

Mark

[shiras]

We’ll miss having you in Cambridge, Massachusetts this October, Alan, but we couldn’t ask for a better hybrid- and virtual-ambassador for all conference attendees of OEGlobal 2026! Thank you for shepherding the community for all forms of engagement during the conference-- our goal is to make it a meaningful and connected experience regardless of one’s modality.

So, let me say “Hello!” and “Welcome!” to all logging in to this special conference Connect space, and from the campus of MIT we look forward to welcoming you however you are able to join!

And for those I haven’t yet met: I’m one of your (many) co-chairs of the conference -Shira

[cogdog]

And I will miss seeing you and being on that mythical campus! But I will make noise.

Thanks for the fantastic conference organizing you and @sehansen which appears like that special kind of herding. Are you keeping count of how many conference emails are flowing out of your box?

Now let’s see of we can get Bob in here, I so enjoy his positive attitude.

[heatherb]

Hello Open Education Friends,

I’m Heather Blicher, Director of the Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER), the North American division of OEGlobal. I’m excited to be heading back up North for the conference (I lived and worked in New Hampshire for a couple of years with many day trips to Boston and Cambridge throughout). I’m also very happy to welcome and greet in-person and virtual attendees to the conference. It is a challenging time for all, but I have heard from many people in the U.S. that this conference is a much welcomed opportunity to get together and support each other. We welcome you!

Warmly,

Heather

[sehansen]

Hi, everyone. My name is Sarah Hansen. I’m the Assistant Director for Open Education Innovation at MIT Open Learning and I’m one of the co-chairs of the conference. I lived in Cambridge for many years, and now I live and work remotely in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I love coming back to Cambridge, and I can’t wait to welcome you to MIT and the surrounding neighborhood. There is an ENERGY here that is unique. You’ll feel like you can invent anything – because you can! Here are a few of my favorite photos from in and around MIT. I hope you feel excited!

[actualham]

Hi everyone! I am Robin DeRosa, Executive Director of the Open Education Network, which is based at the University of Minnesota in the U.S. I live in New Hampshire, a couple hours north of Boston, so I will be heading down to be f2f at this year’s conference. The OEN is also hosting a couple of field-trippy events and a relaxed poetry share (in addition to our regular OEN meet-up which will be a morning café social)-- lots of fun! I will be on a couple of panel sessions as well, talking about tech/AI in one and about the commons/ecosystems/institutions (OH MY!) in the other, with some super smart and generous colleagues. So yeah-- excited to see you all, whether it be online or in Boston.

Sending love out to my friends outside of the US who are avoiding travel to this country right now due to unsafe and/or politically horrifying conditions here.

[cogdog]

Waving hello @actualham I could not be more excited you will be a presence at the conference and celebrating all of the activities OEN is organizing.

I will sadly not be there to greet you but very much will “there” from “here”. I hope you can maybe share/promote your presentations as new topic threads in the Session Conversations area and as well any bits you can share back from the “field-trippy events” et al perhaps in the Interaction Zone.

And I can hope that your travel from New Hampshire down to Cambridge is without any weird hassles. Sending virtual hugs all the way!

[TeamOERcamp]

Hello everyone! I’m Frank Homp, joining online from Hamburg, Germany, where I’m part of the OERcamp team.

At OERcamps, we’ve spent 14 years experimenting with BarCamps and other participant-led formats. I’m especially looking forward to conversations about how open education can create space for people to build knowledge together, as well as share resources.

On October 8, I’ll explore this question with my colleagues Jöran Muuß-Merholz and Nicole Hagen in our session on lessons from 14 years of OERcamps. I’d love to hear about participatory formats you’ve tried: what helped people take ownership of the conversation?

Looking forward to meeting you here and during the conference!

[cogdog]

Thanks Frank as well as @joeran and Nicole for bringing OERcamps to the conference! I took some liberty and added your description over in the Session Conversations area. This can then be a place for participants to discuss your presentation, share notes/reflections afterward

https://connect.oeglobal.org/t/innovating-practices-around-open-education-through-barcamps-and-unconferences-learnings-from-14-years-of-oercamps/9441

I hope and invite other OEGlobal 2026 presenters will promote and open discussion around their own sessions by doing adding a place for it in the in the Session Conversations

[Munirmoosa]

Hello All

My name is Munir, and I am an Inclusive OER expert. I am the founder of the Global Academy of Open Educational Resources, where global teachers and educators have collaborated to publish several works. You can find details here

I’ll be presenting a session on Friday, October 9 at 10:30 AM EDT: “Empowering People with Disabilities About Open Educational Resources – Bridging the Educational Gaps with Inclusive, Accessible and Innovative Practices”

I am also looking forward to collaborating with educators and OER experts.

Munir

[TeamOERcamp]

@mark.wilson

Where will you be joining OEGlobal 2026 from?

I’ve added the conference to the OER World Map: OEglobal Conference 2026 - OER World Map

Create a profile to show that you’re part of the global open education community. On the OEGlobal 2026 entry, you can select “I am attending” and, if you’re speaking, “I’m presenting”. Let’s make visible who’s joining us in Cambridge and online!

And what comes after OEGlobal? Join us for OERcamp.global 2027 on February 23–24: a free, international, 24-hour online BarCamp for open education. You can find the details and register on the OERcamp website.

Greetings from Team OERcamp

[TeamOERcamp]

@shiras

Where will you be joining OEGlobal 2026 from?

I’ve added the conference to the OER World Map: OEglobal Conference 2026 - OER World Map

Create a profile to show that you’re part of the global open education community. On the OEGlobal 2026 entry, you can select “I am attending” and, if you’re speaking, “I’m presenting”. Let’s make visible who’s joining us in Cambridge and online!

And what comes after OEGlobal? Join us for OERcamp.global 2027 on February 23–24: a free, international, 24-hour online BarCamp for open education. You can find the details and register on the OERcamp website.

Greetings from Team OERcamp

[TeamOERcamp]

@heatherb @sehansen @actualham @Munirmoosa

Where will you be joining OEGlobal 2026 from?

I’ve added the conference to the OER World Map: OEglobal Conference 2026 - OER World Map

Create a profile to show that you’re part of the global open education community. On the OEGlobal 2026 entry, you can select “I am attending” and, if you’re speaking, “I’m presenting”. Let’s make visible who’s joining us in Cambridge and online!

And what comes after OEGlobal? Join us for OERcamp.global 2027 on February 23–24: a free, international, 24-hour online BarCamp for open education. You can find the details and register on the OERcamp website.

Greetings from Team OERcamp

[TeamOERcamp]

Hey Alan,

sorry for spamming I thought I can comment on every post itself but instead there are LOTS of posts in a row at the end of this thread

[mark.wilson]

Hello!

I’ll be joining from halfway between Hollywood and Disneyland, in my hometown of Whittier, California.

Best Regards

Mark

[cogdog]

No worries, Frank. Communities are “messy”! The discourse platform has its design reasons for a flat discussion structure, see for some insight

Understanding and Using Discourse's Flat Threading

Your replies may appear at the bottom, but they are connected to show and link to the source post.

I love that you are inviting people to use the OER World Map, I know @SusanneGrimm who is at the conference will be overjoyed.

I might suggest that a slightly better approach than inserting this into the welcome thread, is this is a case where it would work better to create a call to use the OER World Map as a separate new topic/activity in the interaction zone that way the topic stays focused on the map (like the one there for showing your map distance to Cambridge).

Blame me for the mess! And welcome to the conference, we are glad to have OERcampers here.

[TeamOERcamp]

Done! Thank you for your patient introduction to this world here

[Munirmoosa]

I am from Pakistan. I will be joining online.